Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-wan were on a mission from the Jedi Council. That in itself was a rarity. Ever since the start of the Clone Wars, the peacekeeping warriors of the force had agreed to participate in the war to better set an end to the hostilities from the Separatists. So more often these days, they had de facto been under the auspices of the Republic, doing grunt work suited for the clone troopers. But to have an opportunity like this not dictated by the senate was a breath of fresh air.

But there was one thing which kept the leash around the necks of the Jedi from strangling them too tight. That was a shared enemy they held in common with the Republic that helped these Separatists. Namely, the Sith. The warriors of the dark side had cost Obi-Wan his master so many years ago, but he had found his vengeance and avenged him. Yet Anakin had lost his arm at the hands of Dooku, and the fallen Jedi Master and Sith Lord of the era still lived to see another day. So too did his failure to cut him at the quick also help in the rise of General Grievous. The mechanical monstrosity had taken the life of many a Jedi and everytime it slayed a comrade of Ahsoka and Anakin, it took a lightsaber as a trophy of the kill. And it was the same Darth Tyranus who taught the brutish co-leader of the Confederacy on how to use the lightsaber.

Right now they were aboard the Resolute, also on their way to the strange planet. As they got closer, Anakin felt a strange disturbance in the force. It was something of the dark side, he knew that, from the brief times he had touched it in his moments of weakness to openly being exposed to Sith holocrons and clashing with the dark siders who supported the Separatists. Yet what scared him unlike all those other times was that it seemed like this wicked presence called out to him, and in his ears it's voice did not seem like something to fear.

At the time, Anakin was conversing with Rex, apparently showing no concern. Despite him never feeling quite like he fit in with the other Jedi, even his most ardent critics acknowledged the boy's raw power in the force. Though he lacked the discipline and training of Yoda and Windu, even those two normally so critical of his brash persona who had to fine tune their psychic senses to a razor sharp edge over an entire lifetime to get where they did as opposed to the blunt instrument of his power he used like a wrecking tool, they acknowledged his ability.

If he looked unbothered, he hit it well. He remembered what his master told him, that this conflict could be their final battle. But such a notion did not excite him. He did not wish to face this thing that called out him. Perhaps it could be the mystery Lord Sidious they had been searching for all this time. If this thing was their target, then the idea of uprooting it and ending the war terrified him. It was worthy to be called their enemy.

Rex's ideas on how the upcoming battle might go were inconclusive. Looking to relax, Anakin sat down. But he could not maintain a Jedi trance and find peace no matter how hard he tried. What was worse was that he tried to think of his loved ones. And yet as he did, thinking of his beloved wife and where their future might lay, whether it was their estate on Naboo where they would relax languish together in serenity, the great rotunda of the senate or even when he first met her back on Tattooine all he could see were the shadows around them, whether it was the shade of a table or dappled beauty of lying under trees and then there were the long nights he spent with her. Even when they were first wed. And in those shadows, he would see two great white eyes beholding him.

He would look back and his bones would freeze. The thing crept out, still staring at him, and then it stood beside his wife, she completely oblivious to it's presence. He saw it taking her, consuming her, wearing her as it might a person. In his thoughts he could not strike her, would not strike her. All he would do is the thing's bidding, anything to keep her safe. So too did he figure that was why he was so bothered, feeling this thing beyond the simple pall of the dark side looking right at him. A thing so beyond the dark the masters of the temple taught, it was the coldness of his own heart.

“Master, are you unwell?” Ahsoka said. She sensed Anakin's mood becoming dark as he continued reflecting on Dooku on the war. He had said nothing for awhile as they soared through the galaxy to their location, but she felt his unease like a foul stench that just wouldn't go away.

He suddenly perked up at hearing her concern for him. Her smile, her presence, that was real, not some fantasy in his head. “Yes Ahsoka, I am fine.” The way he said it, so formally and matter of fact, she knew that wasn't the case. And then he immediately turned his head back as if to give the impression of strength. She just smiled and gently toussled his shoulder. He showed no reaction but she sensed his mood improving already.

Anakin was lucky to have her by his side. Her, Padme, and Obi-Wan. He still never quite felt like any of the other Jedi despite no longer being a mere padawan but now a full-fledged Jedi Knight, and there were so many skeletons he kept in the darkness. Things he would dare not utter to the other Jedi for their fear of the dark side, and in these trying times, each other. The only other Jedi who knew of how he took his vengeance for his mother was A'Sharad Hett and the Tusken Jedi's forgiveness felt like a thing he didn't deserve. Knew that the other masters including his own may not be so forgiving. Even Ahsoka would regard him as a monster. That terrified him more than any talk of the dark side.

And yet the dark side was no mere fable. He had seen it, felt it in the war, in his greatest enemy. Falling to the dark side was a fear the Jedi always had. But in these times of war, Count Dooku had learned to exploit that terror, taking so many fallen warriors and making them into his personal guard, the Dark Acolytes. And truth be told, many times he felt the only thing keeping him from slipping was his refusal to ever kowtow to the man who took his right hand. Still, his friends being there for him at all for now was all he needed.

Even as his head beat with agony and he sweat with fear. Him answering her gave her some calm and comfort. But even as he said that, his face was pale. “What do you think this thing is?” she said.

“I don't know,” he said. “But I guess we'll find out soon enough.”

She just nodded. “And I'll be ready.”

He gave her a playful smile. “I hope so.”

He wasn't saying that just to get her to pass along the conversation, it was true. The closer they got, the stronger he felt it. And it felt keenly like something from the dark side. But if Dooku had fallen to the dark side, then this thing breathed in it, danced in it, and Anakin still could not look away. For all he knew, it's presence was what had ruined his mood and gotten him to thinking on so many regrets from the past. After that battle he wasn't in the best of moods, but he was ready to do what was needed. Yet as soon as they had glimpsed the green planet, he felt this terrible darkness, and so many memories surged to the forefront.

He looked down at his mechanical hand again. There wasn't a day he didn't remember how once he had an arm of flesh and blood there, yet he had made peace with it. But now his emotions were in rapture, he couldn't help but feel the anger and regret from his impulsive clash with Dooku so long ago. He remembered all his miserable thoughts about Dooku and Grievous earlier. This thing was definitely the source of it. He hoped that this time he would be strong enough to stand up to the dark side.

He clenched his mechanical hand, remembering it was his own foolishness that earned him a trial of the flesh beyond what the temple would put it's initiates through. No. I can't just fight against the dark side to come. I must resist my own darkness.

And soon they found the location in question. When they set out this mission, they were relying more on their instincts than the map installed on their starships. The routes to this world were uncharted and awry, and only the Jedi's gut feelings were able to keep the pilots from becoming frustrated. At each turn, they had proven correct.

So it was now. A small green planet only catalogued on the star map they had just acquired. Rex liked to say that experience superseded everything, even rank. Each individual victory, each tempering of character born of survival and victory was what mattered. The mystical warriors of the Jedi used a power not many people could comprehend, let alone understand, the clones included, no matter how many times they witnessed it's power. But right now Rex understood the force and the Jedi as much as if they were cut of the same cloth.

Looking at it, it didn't look any different from any other planet. It looked undiscovered, no industrialized metropolis like Coruscant. And yet something about it seemed off, as if the beautiful greens and cloud cover, the blues, were all a painter's pigments smeared haphazardly instead of applied like a master's strokes. The more he looked at it, the more everything else about it seemed wrong.

The throbbing pain in Anakin's head was worse than ever. Something else was there too, something telling him not to suffer at all, that all he had to do was give in. Saw his beloved wife naked with him in bed, one of his few sources of solace, willing to do anything to ease his pains. No mere illusion, she had offered him so comforts and it was far more than what the Jedi's teachings could ever give him.

That thing was playing with his memories.

“You ready for this Snips?” he said, ready to embrace the pain.

She smiled. “As long as I'm by your side, master.”

As they set down through the atmospheric cover, the planet's surface became clearer. It was a lush jungle planet surrounded by great oceans, with verdant foliage and crystal clear seascapes as far as the eye could see. They could only begin to imagine what beautiful horrors lie in wait for them upon this world's surface.

Getting closer to the cloud clover, they saw this planet's sun was beginning to set, and the sky was colored in shades of blue and orange as it was close to dusk. Amidst the almost endless canopies they searched for a landing spot, eager for the first one they found. Unlike Dooku and Ventress who were well versed in the dark side enough to pinpoint the anomaly of their target, these Jedi were overwhelmed with the energies roiling from this world. In their haste to match their enemies, were eager to find the first place they could set down.

So when they did find one, Rex gave the order to land. But Anakin dissuaded that notion. “It's too far from where we need to be.”

“Anakin, with all due respect time is of the essence and...” Obi-Wan started.

“And I'm saying if we land there, we'll never catch up with them.” He hated that it was pain that was telling him this, not the serenity of the force he was used to.

Rex looked between the two of them. He had fought with these Jedi for years now and he still never understood them. But while he did not understand the force, he knew it's power. He also trusted them as leaders.

“Fine,” Obi-Wan said conceding, folding his arms. Anakin directed the helmsman to move about in certain directions until they had finally found the clearing which satisfied him. When they did set foot, he took the lead, saying he sensed something. Nobody else knew what to make of it.

The heat of the planet was something the Separatist crew could endure. Dooku and Ventress were no stranger to the dark side and so the stifling climate of this world was nothing compared to the burning anger in their hearts, and whatever little sensations the battle droids felt wasn't enough to deter them. Still, their journey was nothing compared to this Republic crew. As soon as they all stepped out of the ship, they were all hit with the sheer force of the muggy heat. The clone troopers were forged in the heat of battle and trained to surive the worst of conditions, but hardships like this one were still rough for them and in their armor, it was testing even their patience.

The cries of the wildlife were also unknown to them. Unlike the dark siders who came before them who trafficked in wickedness so much they measured conflict in victory not lives lost and cities ruined, these peacekeepers could sense how off the noise was. It did not just sound static, it sounded as if their voices were discordant altogether, but despite the peculiar tones in these creatures' voices, they could still tell the meaning inherent in them. It sounded as if they were a strange audience of fairytale creatures, all too happy to welcome these new visitors.

The clone troopers looked about them in their helmets, and their signatures didn't register anything that was known to them. But beyond that, it was their features on their faces. No matter what the beast they were looking at, whether it was a small bird or some great quadripedal hunter, they all had wide bright eyes and long loping mouths lined with teeth. The known beasts of the jungles looked like house pets compared to these.

The heat and the pain, it made Anakin feel like his head was going to explode. But he looked back at them and did not waver in his gaze. Despite the throbbing pain in his skull, despite the chills on this muggy world. He finally felt relief when they looked away and scurried off. The headache was gone, and even in this strange landscape, the heat, in his dark robes he felt like he could run a marathon just for fun. Even felt inclined to draw his saber and do training drills.

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No more than dumb beasts after all.

But he knew it wasn't that easy. They were not the thing that called to him. No longer afraid, Anakin wanted to meet it. If it would invite him, he would accept that audience. Show it the power of the Chosen One.

The other Jedi finally felt that something beyond the dark side too. “Do you feel that master?” Ahsoka said to Anakin.

“Yes I do. I've felt it as soon as we set out on this journey.”

“I can't begin to fathom what it is,” Obi-Wan said. “It feels like something of the dark side...”

“It's not the dark side,” Anakin said. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan looked at him. “It's strange, a sensation I haven't felt before. It feels like it's calling to me.” That got them concerned. “But I don't like it.”

Obi-Wan studied his face and felt his signature in the force changing. As if even on this hot jungle planet far away from everything he knew and loved, he was having a new experience akin to someone taking spice in one of the dirtiest night clubs on Coruscant. When his apprentice was still a Padawan a couple weeks just after Dooku took his hand, he had been baited by Asajj Ventress. He had played into her trap, ignoring his superior's orders, given into the dark side and gotten the clone troopers accompanying him killed. Anakin had engaged her in a duel and won but though he assumed her dead, she had survived. Skywalker's first encounter with Ventress but not his last. Kenobi hoped this situation would not be a similar one.

Yet in this mire of the force, he could not sense it's presence pulling at Anakin. Instead there was a strange tranquility. Nothing of the peace of the Jedi, but yet lacking in the hateful passions of the Sith too. It was a child's sense of wonder at realizing for the first time just how strange his surroundings could be.

“Well I hope you're right,” Obi-Wan said. “I don't want this to be like Yavin IV.” Anakin nodded, seemingly unbothered by his master scolding him. They made their trek. On an uncharted jungle planet with nothing but their instincts, they were searching for something.

Fortunately even on their seemingly hopeless mission, they were warriors of the force. So they followed the direction from where they felt it. Even in the damp heat of the forest with trees and vines every which way, their senses were honed to track whatever this thing was as if they were using a compass. More than the dense atmosphere of navigating the thickets of trees, they felt the thing and they focused on that instead.

They felt the crimson evening sun's heat overhead filtering in through the roof of trees. Coupled with the heat and the ever present energy of the dark side, it made for a miserable and oppressive atmosphere. Even at each other's side, their moods began to turn dour. Their audience of wildlife as strangely reassuring as it sounded in that wild cacophony only served as a reminder of what uncharted territories they were venturing to.

As they kept walking on, dark clouds began to form overhead. They heard the distant rumble of thunder and then it started drizzling. Anakin was already grumbling, he had found peace with this thing's temptation but nobody liked dealing with rain. As if by some cruel trick of the force to answer him, the light sprinkle turned into a full on deluge. For once they were thankful for the canopy of trees overhead. They were still being more soaked than they would have liked to, but things could have been so much worse.

But soon the storm clouds passed, and the already dim light overhead passed over to night. The only thing lighting their way was the red moon in the celestial vault above. The clone troopers activated the night vision in their helmets, while the Jedi continued leading the way, using the force to sense their target. This forest still dripping with leftover water from that downpour under the bright crimson moonlight made it look as though the leaves of the jungle were dripping with blood.

The pale green moon soon followed it's red sibling and reared up to join it in the dark skies above. With that ghastly corpse like illumination joining the red shine lighting their path, the light of the surface changed to a pale yellow glow. It was nothing like the golden glow of the many suns of the galaxy and it did not even look like the sands of Tattooine, a nostalgic color for Anakin, but instead it resembled the bile and phlegm of dried gore. In that deep darkness under the canopies with only that sickly jaundiced shade to guide them, it felt as if they were in a haunted realm. Only the glowing swords of these Jedi retained their original luster.

They saw more of the strange wildlife coming out to play at night. Small bats flitting about, little reptiles hopping and making their noises, great wildcats in the trees that would humble any nexu or vornskr, all had those demonic scowls. Smiling at their new visitors, they looked almost comical, like pitiful mutants from a waste bog rather than real predators. And yet nobody there would begin to approach even the smallest one, either as hunters looking to prove themselves against that fear of the supernatural that was as chilling to them as it was for a child to hear a ghost story, or something in the spirit of zoological inquiry that would only think of these things as animals. They pressed on.

They soon found the same mountain Dooku and Ventress had ascended earlier and mounted the crags. This high up and in the dead of night, the muggy heat gave way to the chills of altitude. In that sweltering hot climate earlier now suddenly changing to cold, now more than a few of them started to feel sick from such a fast adjustment in the weather, the shift had been so sudden as if they were re-learning what cold air actually felt like and it was unbearable. Ahsoka especially was feeling it bad.

“How are we fixed for going further, Captain Rex?” said Obi-Wan.

“We've dealt with worse, general,” he said. “We're trained to be tough. But Tano...” Hearing attention directed her way made her that much more nauseous. She instantly vomited on the ground and had to sit. Her skin was sweaty and she was panting.

Seeing them all look at her, she tried putting on a strong front. “It's fine...I can keep going,” she said.

“No, I don't want you to be hurt,” Anakin said. Ahsoka started coughing again.

“Rex, perhaps we should leave some troopers here with her for protection while we go higher,” Obi-Wan said.

That set something off in her. She remembered when she was on Gilad Pellaeon's vessel how the strict commander had required her to wear black overalls over her standard liberal sleeveless attire for the reason that it was to protect her skin from some of the chemicals present on starships. That remark she just heard from Obi-Wan felt so much more patronizing. “I can keep going!” Ahsoka said, standing up. “You know how tough Dooku is. And with Ventress at his side, you'll need all the help you can get.”

Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. They both heard from Master Luminara Unduli of her stubbornness when the subject of Ventress came up. They didn't know whether to admire her or scold her.

“I can keep an eye on her,” Rex said.

“What?” Ahsoka said, incensed.

“That might be a good idea,” Anakin said. “Ventress is a tough opponent. And with her using two lightsabers, fighting off Snips and deflecting your blaster fire will be a challenge even for her.”

Ahsoka smiled. “Thanks Skyguy.”

“Don't disappoint me, okay?”

“Very well,” Obi-Wan said. “Let's keep on going!”

It was not long before they reached the cave Dooku's party had found at daytime. It was already an imposing enough sight on it's own. But in the dead of night, it looked vast and terrible, a vault to keep an ancient sickness sealed away for all eternity, and woe to those who would dare let it loose once more. The fear they felt was something beyond the dark side. Slowly they advanced forward.

At night inside the cave atop the mountain, the setting was not so inviting and beautiful to captivate archaelogists and researchers everywhere with wonder. Both moons were each positioned above one of the holes in the roof and the structure and trees were so uneven in reflecting their light that it some parts the individual corpse like green and bloodred shadow lights of the two moons came in at different places side by side with that putrid yellow shine. The nearby huts cast in the amalgam glare of the moons above and surrounded by that vast gloom looked like the homes of witches who even in death made ritualistic sacrifice daily. All of them had only seen such effects advertised for the most illicit of Coruscanti nightclubs, lights made by sentient creatures. If the nature here could cause such a thing, perhaps they had left the galaxy in all it's wonders and life and had instead landed on a demon planet, a nexus to the afterworld. It was enough to make them forget about the Separatists they had come to fight.

It was a great expanse too. For whatever misgivings they had about the situation, it was not some mere cavern cast in so many lights. The breadth of the cavern atop the summit was wide enough that the Republic forces felt small and insignifcant compared to their surroundings. Great enough to house an entire battlefield.

The whole time they were studying the area, the temple in the distance loomed in their vision as if it was the throne of some ancient king. It was a great and tall ziggurat, but even as high as it was, it's size was dwarfed by the gnarled trees and stone roof above. The old stones it was made of were covered with moss and decay, and it's great steps were covered with a number of oversized vines, but that didn't dim the strength of the resonance coming forth from it. If they had just found this piece of architecture in any other setting, anyone with a right head on their shoulders would think it looked ready to collapse at any moment, that's how old it was. Yet for how ancient it surely was, it was still foreboding as any fortress, the Sith truly never changed. The vibrations of their target were from here, they were sure. It wasn't so much located in the building before them, they felt it must have been interred in whatever subterranean areas were constructed from this temple.

At that point traversing through the jungle, they had learned to co-exist as it were with whatever oppressive atmosphere was present, taking solace that at least it was not of the dark side. But once they looked upon the ancient building, they felt a dark forbidding in their hearts. As if the very rock the temple was constructed of whispered to them to come no closer. In the overwhelming darkness colored only in those nightmare hues of yellow, red and green, the statues looked like fiends that would drive the Jedi to cower, to drop their lightsabers and run without a second thought.

The clones were not so mystical. During the trek to the mountain, their helmets with their enhanced visual fields had allowed them to clearly see in the bushes the alien wildlife whose force signatures entranced the Jedi. These statues were of those creatures.

Anakin beheld them with a strange sense of dread at what sort of place this temple was, yet he felt no fear. No pain, no hesitation. Even as it felt like the eyes of the statues were staring right at him, his force senses feeling deafened by that psychic invitation. The sculptures reminded him of what strange wildlife had paid them a visit, and yet those things were mere jesters, peasants and paupers. If those creatures had been an audience, then under the light of these moons above still shining in their fullness even through the massive stone roof above, these effigies were a welcoming ceremony. Here at the throne of the demon king itself.

And yet this was no audience but a battle. The searing agony was long gone and this close it did not reawaken but now it was that wild bravado running riot in his heart, a feeling that had aided him as a boy fighting the Trade Federation too young to understand that he was fighting, that had compelled him to spar with Dooku so long ago and changed his life forever. Not the tempered mind of a Jedi Knight and a general, a man who knew how to use his power and when to marshal his troops on a field. A strangely nostalgic feeling, he found himself loathing it even more than the invitation of the infernal court before him. It had cost him so much.

He was not sure his fellows could handle it. The clones were all hardened veterans bred for one thing, multi tools trained to improvise and adapt, like wild animals themselves, people who counted living in barracks and eating war rations a luxury compared to the depths they had to go to survive on the more remote and trying fields. Obi-Wan was a Jedi Master who had lost his mentor, his father to the dark side and would not scare so easily. But Ahsoka for all her experience was still young and fresh. He looked at her and saw her staring ahead blankly. As if she would follow in her master's footsteps in all things of temptation and error. Cast in those myriad lights and the darkness about, she looked much like some bimbo woman toked out on spice in a nightclub herself, her posture even just standing still upright much like a fleshgait trying to imitate walking.

And he could not read her force signature. It was not the chill of the mountains.

“Think you can handle it?” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She jumped in surprise, as if she struggled to understand where she was, and then looked at him. For the first few seconds she didn't see her master. In those shadows and lights, she saw a great and towering dark figure, a thing whose breaths were cold and labored. Every second of it's life seemed to be pure agony, as if it had forgotten all notions of joy and happiness. Upon it's dark armor shone that same trinity of green, red, and yellow. But all she could see were bloodstains, cracks that showed it's pale ghastly skin underneath, and the yellow bile of decaying sickness pouring out as if it was a thing that yearned to be put out of it's misery, a revenant that had died a long time ago and only walked because of some hellbent purpose beyond reason. She only stared at it in horror.

And then just as she made to scream she saw her master. Stern, powerful, proud of her. A good man. In this strange planet wracked with the corners of the force too unnatural for the dark side, it was merely a vision of what was to come and not what may be.

“Of course I can!” she said. She was jumpy, but she was back to normal. Her eyes, she was moving normal again. He could read her force signature and she was possessed of an undeniable energy. Good old Snips.

Obi-Wan regarded the structure. It did not hold the same temptation as it had the two juniors with him. He had encountered the dark before, fallen Jedi who became crime lords and corrupt tycoons like Qui-Gon's apprentice Xanatos, and wrestled with his own darkness as all Jedi did. But Maul was his first encounter with a real Sith. The Zabrak horns made him look much like a devil himself and yet there was no inherent evil in their kind.

But Maul was a devil. He had killed Obi-Wan's master, had forced Anakin upon him, had changed his life forever. Had changed the galaxy much too. No longer could they be peacekeeping Jedi striving to protect the innocent. Now they had to fight the darkness as much as they had to fear their own.

As far as he was concerned, for all that he represented, Dooku was no real Sith. A warrior, a mastermind, a crusader, a face in a suit, someone who knew the dark side in and out beyond a tool of war and knew the old alchemy and rituals far greater than any curious initiate. But for all his myriad delusions and campaigns he was a revolutionary and politician, not a monster given to random fits of cruelty and concerned with overthrowing the Jedi. He orchestrated evil but plenty of politicians, criminals and gangsters, corrupt corporate heads he didn't even know about did that all the time, and this war could go on as it had with anyone else at the helm. Looking into the eyes of those statues, he remembered Maul.

Obi-Wan knew things would change in hours if not minutes and there was no going back. He would welcome that change. He had become a master, had watched Anakin grow into a man, had survived losses he never thought he would be able to endure. If this would spell the doom of the Jedi and the Republic, then he would survive. He would survive and fight even as ruin rained around him. And should he die, he would become a symbol for justice. A holy martyr in the minds of the people, all that perished around him would rise again as if his spirit breathed new life into them, the raw spirits of children innocent and untainted by impurity, dauntless in their fight. The Jedi may die, the Republic may die, but good would never die.

“Let's go!” said Obi-Wan.

Rex followed up. “You heard him! Advance!” The clones marched forward.

Anakin and Ahsoka nodded and pressed on, at each other's sides.